World debt comparison

Our interactive overview of government debt across the planet

The clock is ticking. Every second, it seems, someone in the world takes on more debt. The idea of a debt clock for an individual nation is familiar to anyone who has been to Times Square in New York, where the American public shortfall is revealed. Our clock (updated September 2012) shows the global figure for almost all government debts in dollar terms.

Does it matter? After all, world governments owe the money to their own citizens, not to the Martians. But the rising total is important for two reasons. First, when debt rises faster than economic output (as it has been doing in recent years), higher government debt implies more state interference in the economy and higher taxes in the future. Second, debt must be rolled over at regular intervals. This creates a recurring popularity test for individual governments, rather as reality TV show contestants face a public phone vote every week. Fail that vote, as various euro-zone governments have done, and the country (and its neighbours) can be plunged into crisis.

Notes:

This interactive graphic displays gross government debt for the globe. The clock covers 99% of the world based upon GDP. It uses latest available data and assumes that the fiscal year ends in December.

Debt figures are derived from national definitions and therefore may vary from country to country.

The clock shows the estimated debt at the point corresponding to the current date and time in whatever year you are viewing; this is why it increases even when you view past or future years.

All data is mapped on modern borders (Montenegro split from Serbia in 2006, Kosovo in 2008. South Sudan split from Sudan in 2011. Data for these countries are included in their parent nations' prior to these dates).

IS THERE AWILL? THERE IS A WAY.
Any human being with common sense looking to this world debt of more than fifty one trillion dollars has to take in to consideration the impossibility of payment of off this debt and establish a different method of thinking. The economic measures imposed by IMF and or Troika to countries that meet economic problems (usually caused by banks) cause deep recession and lead a large amount of people to poverty, desperation and usually to starvation. A good idea for a country or a group of countries is to increase their money supply, but the problem is the inflation and the currency rates especially if they are not exporting countries. I think if there is a will there is a way. Convocation of a session of all parties related to the subject from all countries worldwide would be a good idea. The agenda of this session must include among others the theme {Increase of the global money supply as a solution of most of economic problems worldwide}.
The increase of the global money worldwide has some benefits instead of implementation separately by countries. We don’t have to meet the problem of exchange rates because of the establishment of a common rate of increase for all countries and therefore we ΄ll not have to meet the problem of the unfair competitiveness between exporting and not exporting countries. Countries can use the surplus money to lower their public debt and or for recapitalization of their banks. A new method of salaries or reward must be established so that the lower of them to respond to the cost of living. Someone can say that this is unfair for countries with very low debt or almost without debt. This is not a problem; the sharing of the surplus money can be done always by a proportional and fair method, and as most of poor countries in Africa or elsewhere have very low public debts they would have the chance to develop their countries and also to face the problem of starvation.
George Zavles
Cyprus

HMM, and what country do we have to blame for this? What country was " Trustworthy with all our gold "? Oh that's right, the U.S, and they can't even return Germany's gold for 7 years. Why I wonder, because they spent it..

The idea of a debt clock for an individual nation is familiar to anyone who has been to Times Square in New York, where the American public shortfall is revealed. Our clock (updated September 2012) shows the global figure for almost all government debts in dollar terms. cheap flowers

We live in a mad world. How can monetary dept ever be cleared when rent has always existed, still exists and printing more money means inflation?

'Economy' actually means 'to economize', though the economical welfare of countries is measurement by how much they SPEND.
Why make a lasting product while you can make a bad one and have people buy a new one even sooner?
Capitalism has far outran its benefits and needs to make way for an economic system based on shared innovation and technology that protects our resources and creates ways for us to live on together without the outcome of total self-destruction.

Success is not to create a giant GDP, it's to distribute it, and make the maximum amount of population economically active... as I can see, China is the opposite, so as other countries like Brazil.

In the last decades, instead of the 3rd word start to reach the 1st, what is happening is that the other way around... in some years, with the Germans that receive 100 per month or the Americans that lives in the street, we will be able to understand what Globalization and "Free" Economy is: World without barriers, but a third world...

Success is not to create a giant GDP, it's to distribute it, and make the maximum amount of population economically active... as I can see, China is the opposite, so as other countries like Brazil.

In the last decades, instead of the 3rd word start to reach the 1st, what is happening is that the other way around... in some years, with the Germans that receive 100 per month or the Americans that lives in the street, we will be able to understand what Globalization and "Free" Economy is: World without barriers, but a third world...

This is so wroung and you don't have the wright to take away are food and and the way we live you are taking away are jobes and are mony if we hve no mony you don't git enny of the money we need this and we need all the money we git you goes git if you are away are money we git are money and we have to it then stop are taxes and we never Jose what is happening and we need are lives and are money

western world have adopted a dangerous way of increasing GDP, simply by influencing consumption through credits and benefits(which by the way can influence the public into debts). I feel the get rich quick syndrome is to blame.
people should simply work for their needs. if I cant afford a car, why will the government want to give me credit to own a car which means Debt to pubic purse. from a political point, the credit will be given to me because the government would want to look good. therefore governments go borrowing to provide infrastructures or facilities that its citizens had not worked for. (technically speaking when you work, you pay tax. tax are used to provide for the need of the citizens on a general scale. no wonder taxes are alarming these days.
looking at the chart, Africa is least affected not because of underdevelopment but because African societies in general are satisfied with what it can afford.(we hardly incur debts)